First editions of Shakespeare’s plays could fetch millions at Sotheby’s auction

LOS ANGELES - A rare complete set of the first four editions of William Shakespeare’s collected works will go to auction next month at Sotheby’s in London, where it could fetch as much as $6 million. The announcement was timed to the playwright’s 461st birthday, celebrated each year on April 23.

It marks the first time since 1989 that a full set of the First, Second, Third and Fourth Folios is being offered together as a single lot, with an estimated price between 3.5 million and 4.5 million pounds ($4.4 to $6 million USD).

Why the First Folio matters

The backstory:

Seven years after Shakespeare’s death in 1616, his friends and fellow actors John Heminges and Henry Condell compiled 36 of his plays into what’s now known as the First Folio. It included works that had never been published before, including "Macbeth," "The Tempest," and "Twelfth Night." Without it, those plays might have been lost forever.

Sotheby’s calls the First Folio "without question the most significant publication in the history of English literature." Printed in 1623, only about 230 of the original 750 copies are known to survive, with most housed in museums, universities, or libraries.

How the other Folios compare

The success of the First Folio led to updated versions: the Second Folio in 1632, the Third in 1663, and the Fourth in 1685. While the First remains the most historically significant, the Third Folio is the rarest, with only 182 surviving copies—possibly due to losses during the Great Fire of London in 1666.

The Third Folio also introduced seven new plays, but only one—"Pericles, Prince of Tyre"—is widely accepted as Shakespeare’s work.

What's next:

The auction is expected to draw intense interest. In 2020, one of the few First Folios still in private hands sold for $9.9 million. With Shakespeare’s enduring cultural legacy and the scarcity of such complete sets, experts say this auction is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for collectors.